On the Mysteries of the Egyptians

This leaf of the manuscript contains no legible text or illustrations. In the study of historical books, such a page is often referred to as a blank leaf Also known as a flyleaf if at the beginning or end of a volume; these pages were often left unwritten to protect the main text from the friction of the binding or to allow for future additions..

The presence of blank parchment within a bound volume reminds us of the material reality of manuscript production. Sometimes a scribe would leave a page empty to mark a major transition between subjects, or the quire original: "quaterniones"; the small booklets or groups of folded sheets that are sewn together to make a book. simply contained more surface area than the text required. While empty of words, it remains an original part of the manuscript's physical history.